HRM wood-first concept chopped down by industry groups

By REMO ZACCAGNA BUSINESS REPORTERPublished January 10, 2013 - 8:32pm

Opposition from industry groups to a potential municipal wood-first policy in Halifax is growing.

Three items on Thursday’s agenda for regional council’s environment and sustainability standing committee referenced the policy, including a presentation request from the Cement Association of Canada and correspondence from the Construction Association of Nova Scotia.

In a 10-minute presentation to the committee, Mary Macaulay, an environmental engineer and executive director of the Atlantic Concrete Association, spoke about the positive attributes that ready-mix concrete has over wood as a construction material.

The material is durable, energy efficient and all ingredients are extracted and produced locally, she said. Of the 60 members of the group, 58 operate solely in Atlantic Canada.

“Our industry has made huge investments in the region, millions and millions of dollars, and when you start playing around with these kind of economies, you never know what’s going to happen,” Macaulay told the committee.

“So we do hope that you consider that Halifax being the engine of the economy of Nova Scotia, it really is considered to be the engine of the economy of Atlantic Canada and what you guys do is really significant.”

A report submitted to the committee in December asked it to recommend to council that it consider a wood-first policy for municipal structures being built or renovated.

Wood building materials “have lower energy, water and air quality impacts than alternatives” and would provide a boost to Nova Scotia’s forestry and lumber sectors, which “are mainstays” of the provincial economy, according to the report.

The report’s origins stem from a campaign by Atlantic WoodWorks, a program of the Maritime Lumber Bureau.

Many of the claims made to justify the policy are “pulp fiction,” Macaulay said, including one that states that wood has a low carbon footprint and is a versatile material.

“We agree that wood is versatile, but we’re not very sure what the significance of that is because, of course, all the different construction materials are very versatile, especially when you combine them,” she said.

Michael McSweeney, president and CEO of the Cement Association of Canada, said his group’s opposition to the policy is not about self-preservation but is based on the principle that it’s not the government’s place to pick winners and losers in the economy.

“We believe that all construction materials should compete in a fair and open marketplace and it’s really not government’s role to favour one building material over another,” he said in an interview from Toronto.

It’s also imperative that those directly involved in the process determine which materials are best to use, he said.

“We always say that it really is the engineer and the architect and those professionals that should decide what building materials should be used, taking into consideration the National Building Code and the provincial building code.”

Last month, Coun. Jennifer Watts (Peninsula North), the environment committee’s vice-chairwoman and the person who requested the report, told The Chronicle Herald that any wood-first policy would follow National Building Code of Canada guidelines, which limit the use of wood to buildings of four storeys or less.